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One thing that I don't think career services provided much info on is the effect law review has on your outcomes. For reference, I have a gpa well north of yours but no VLR, but I only got about 20 preselects (albeit in DC, maybe we bid different cities). Obviously very anecdotal, and KD just warned us of this! But I thought I'd throw out my anecdote, since we don't have much else.

I'm the anon quoted and I was exclusively targeting NYC. DC is a bloodbath.

Anonymous User wrote:Yup. 3.85 VLR. 27 preselects but just 12 of those came from DC, despite that being the market where I bid most heavily.

Your GPA might be too high for a bunch of DC firms, tbh. DC is selective as hell, but they also realize when they probably aren't going to get you, so they might want to interview the 3.5 before the 3.85 w/VLR because you're likely to go to W&C, Wilmer, Covington, etc. It might not be true, but they are playing a yield game just like we are.

I just wanted to chime in about lottery interviews. Every year a lot of people dismiss their chances of getting a callback or offer from one of these, but it is not uncommon for that to happen if you go into the room and kick ass. One of my friends ended up at a V10 firm with nowhere near the grades that firm usually asks for, all because of a lottery interview she absolutely killed.

Br3v wrote:Good luck everyone, recent grad in biglaw let me know if you have any questions

Thanks for the kind words.

I don't have questions, but I just wanted to wish everyone luck, and equally important, don't let the pressure surrounding the school get to you. People will be successful, will get CBs, and will be excited about those CBs. Let's encourage each other when good things happen, and not worry that others might be having more success than you are. Just keep in mind that while we're all generally competing for the same jobs, firms, etc., we are strong because we openly encourage each other when others find success. We're at a school where you can find success if you have done your research and interview well, which is baked into the personality of UVA students.

Good luck to everyone interviewing alongside me, and I know/hope several of you will steal offers away from me because you find a firm that is the right fit for what you want. We are strongest when we encourage each other.

Yep, remember that at the end of the day you are at uva and will be fine. Not to say you can slack, but if you do what you need to do then the school will do everything it can to make sure you succeed.

UVA2018 wrote:My OGI experience last year, given to warn those with below-median grades to not go into OGI anticipating an offer:

GPA: around a 3.2Preparation: I went to weekly practice interviews with Career Services over the summer; followed their advice on what geographic regions and bands to bid on; had my resume, cover letter, and bid list proofread by multiple people at Career Services; spent hours researching each firm I interviewed with

Number of preselects: less than 3Number of lottery interviews: less than 20Number of callbacks: ZERO from OGI, 1 from resume collect, 1 from mass mailing hundreds of firmsNumber of offers: 0 (struck out)

Looking back on my experience, I wish UVA would scrap the pointless lottery interviews completely and make the system 100% preselect. If you're going to screw over the bottom third of the class so that the top-GPA students can be inundated with even more opportunities, you might as well go all the way.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. My GPA is right around 3.1 and I'm starting to get a little concerned. I've had some job experience so I had 8 preselects, but that's still very low. If you don't mind sharing, how did you end up finding a job? Any tips?

Bottom 1/5 of the class = no hope? During 1L, I was receiving medical treatment for an illness that is now in remission, but I feel like I've closed the door to big law for good. Any hope of redemption?0 CBs anticipated. .

Anonymous User wrote:Bottom 1/5 of the class = no hope? During 1L, I was receiving medical treatment for an illness that is now in remission, but I feel like I've closed the door to big law for good. Any hope of redemption?0 CBs anticipated. .

Did you explain the situation to the firms? How did they respond? Are you on journal? Good undergrad grades?

Anonymous User wrote:Bottom 1/5 of the class = no hope? During 1L, I was receiving medical treatment for an illness that is now in remission, but I feel like I've closed the door to big law for good. Any hope of redemption?0 CBs anticipated. .

Have you been sending out resume and cover letter to every market that interests you? Did you have any preselects for OGI?

Hope isn't necessarily lost for you, but it's all about how much you hustle and the markets you can/should target. Keep the press on and keep your focus and a positive spirit. You need to the type of person in interviews that people want to bring in to work. Downplay your weak points while showing your strengths. You can do this.

Anonymous User wrote:Bottom 1/5 of the class = no hope? During 1L, I was receiving medical treatment for an illness that is now in remission, but I feel like I've closed the door to big law for good. Any hope of redemption?0 CBs anticipated. .

Did you explain the situation to the firms? How did they respond? Are you on journal? Good undergrad grades?

If OP or anyone else isn't on a journal or would be interested in adding one, PM me. Might have a managing board spot open on mine. I meant to post before screeners, sorry.